Our "Franken" Stein adventure begins...

Our "Franken" Stein adventure begins... - 02/04/1307:51 PM

In the name of all that is holy, what is that thing!?! Its like someone grafted a keyboard and spindle legs onto a 1930s jukebox!

Oh dear god, no! It can't be!!! Have they no decency?

OMG, this unnatural assemblage of parts is... ALIVE!

Those who saw my earlier thread, know that we ended our Quest for the $500 Piano with an 1874 Steinway Early Large Scale "mirror" piano. We were looking for something with a colorful character and a nice sound on a shoestring budget. A piano the family could "play" and that I could indulge my fascination with the intersection of mechanics and artistry that a piano is.http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthrea...0piano%20/.html

We of course opted to move it ourselves, which was certainly an adventure. 6 guys, a rented trailer, borrowed pickup, dollies, straps, blankets and 5 hours later we finally had it home in one piece. And no one even went to the ER!

So far I've removed the action and keys to give a thorough looking over and cleaning, and managed to have it all still work when I got it back together. I give full credit to Reblitz So far we're loving it, its exactly what we had hoped having a piano in our home would be

Re: Our "Franken" Stein adventure begins... - 02/05/1301:19 PM

Originally Posted By: Larry Buck

Looks like a 3 bridge Steinway Upright.

That's correct. There are 20 strings in the bass section on a straight offset bridge, 9 notes on a transitional "return" bridge, and then the remaining 59 are on a continuous curved bridge. I'll have to add a picture of the whole bottom section, looks like I left that out. I thought it was interesting that this model used agraffes for the top 59 notes, seems fairly unique in an upright.

Based on the info below from the "Official Guide to Steinway Pianos" this seems to have been a 56" "Early Large Scale" 1b, the first 88 key large scale upright which lead to the Model G. Its interesting that this CF Theodore Steinway scale design seems to have been the last large scale designed from scratch, with later large scales being scaled up from the medium scale designs. The G seems to have been basically the same as this one, but with a capo bar replacing the agraffes. Looks like the earlier Henry Steinway Jr Upright scales had used agraffes through out, and this was the last one to still use them.

Re: Our "Franken" Stein adventure begins... - 02/05/1301:28 PM

Part of the fun of going through this old piano was finding all the little notes and inscriptions added over the years. A number of the keys had names on them, presumably of people who had worked on it over the years or even been involved in the original production. There are two tuners notes on the pinblock from 1924 and 1977. Hopefully it was tuned a few more times than that

This note occupies the "place of honor" on the outside of key 88. From what I gather Leiter Bros was a large dealer in Syracuse in the late 18 and early 1900s. They apparently were the original publishers of some of Scott Joplin's songs. From the location I'm guessing they were the original sellers of the Piano, but its hard to know for sure. Its always possible they just resold it or even were the "mirrorizers".

All of the removable parts still have chalk notations with "Steinway 29178", presumably from the last time it was all apart for major work. May very well have been when it was mirrorized? Interesting to see what I assume was the original wood finish on the back of the knee board.

Re: Our "Franken" Stein adventure begins... - 02/05/1304:26 PM

Re: Our "Franken" Stein adventure begins... - 02/05/1305:10 PM

Yeah, we actually quite like its rather unique deco look. It fits much better into our 50s era home than the more ornate dark wood Victorian look would have. Only probably 1/2 of the case is original wood. The sides and quarter round pillasters, front half of the top (re-set below the mirror box), fall board, keyslip, name board, and knee board (apparently re-used in reverse unless the inside was typically finished) seem to be original and have been coated with some sort of veneer or something synthetic. The top half front facing board and top box, cheeks, and whole front leg assembly seem to be replacements with the bench legs replaced to match. Most of the replacement wood seems quite solid, though the box around the top behind the mirror is very thin plywood, reducing the overall height from 56" to about 54".

The longest bass strings are about 60", with a 52-53" speaking length. Its interested that the single bass strings are copper wound, while the wound bi-chords and tri-chords are steel wound. I'm wondering if thats original, or an indication that at least some strings were replaced at some point.

I know that in many mirror pianos the quality of work and condition of the core may have been poor, but this one seems to have been done pretty well. The family we bought it from had acquired it in 1915, which seems pretty early for this kind of make over, so rather than a typical dealer doing the makeover to resell I wonder if this one wasn't actually commissioned by the owners in the 20s or 30s. Its deco look seems like it would have been going out of style by the 40s/50s.

Re: Our "Franken" Stein adventure begins... - 02/06/1301:52 AM

Replaced my first string tonight. Piano gods saw to it that I had the opportunity for some extra practice. Its funny, I can remember thinking in all those threads, "what kind of idiot would put the hammer on the wrong pin?" Well apparently this kind of idiot. The very first thing I did with my new tuning hammer was turn the wrong pin and break a string

All better now, already pulled each up to about 1/4 tone sharp 2-3 times. Hopefully they'll settle down a bit before our party Sunday

I thought the beckets came out surprisingly ok! Definitely need to pick up a stringing hook though, was a major pain using a screwdriver and the rounded back of some needle nose pliers.

Re: Our "Franken" Stein adventure begins... - 02/06/1307:52 AM

However, you might want to be careful how you brag about your amateur piano tech skills here... the pros, will pounce all over you.

Some will offer constructive criticism in an effort to help and others will chime in just to let you know who the real pros are.

Some advice from another amateur, wan-a-be piano tech… always turn the tuning hammer slightly counter-clockwise first to make sure you are on the right tuning pin. I haven't broken a string yet from tuning, but I have from hard playing.

Re: Our "Franken" Stein adventure begins... - 02/06/1302:49 PM

However, you might want to be careful how you brag about your amateur piano tech skills here... the pros, will pounce all over you.

Some will offer constructive criticism in an effort to help and others will chime in just to let you know who the real pros are.

Some advice from another amateur, wan-a-be piano tech… always turn the tuning hammer slightly counter-clockwise first to make sure you are on the right tuning pin. I haven't broken a string yet from tuning, but I have from hard playing.

By-the-way, your first string replacements looks great in the photos!

Rick

Thanks Rick! Appreciate the advice very much. I know my excitement can get away from me, but I hope it doesn't come across as bragging. That's certainly not the intent. If anything this experience has already given me a whole lot of respect for anyone who does this work well, and still quickly enough to actually make a living doing it. It probably took me 3 hrs, which of course wasn't helped by having to do a whole second string

Re: Our "Franken" Stein adventure begins... - 02/27/1302:07 PM

After replacing the string, I found that the volume was very soft on this note which was a big surprise. The hammer had been grooved more deeply from just hitting one string for an extended period, but I had incorrectly assumed that once the string was replaced even it only struck two strings now instead of one its volume would increase. It actually seemed softer now with two strings!

After some excellent advice received over on the tech forum, the issue was apparently that the extended playing with one string not only compacted the felt on the one side but effectively softened it on the rest of the hammer. So now the soft part of the hammer was striking the new strings, resulting in the very soft volume.

With more than a little trepidation, I set out to file down the hammer to even it out. I did this very slowly and cautiously, trying not to take off any more material than necessary while working in an arcing motion from the shoulders toward the strike point with an even number of strokes on top and bottom to try and preserve the shape of the hammer. Happily this made a huge difference, and now the note sounds very similar to the ones around it. Its still not quite hitting the third string fully, but I've decided for now not to take off any more material in hopes that it will even out the rest of the way from playing.

Here's the hammer (in the middle) showing the deeper groove on the left side:

and here's the top and profile views after filing:

A little scary, but it seemed to come out pretty well! It probably took me about an hour to do this one hammer, which makes me think eventually doing the other 87 will be a bit time consuming

Re: Our "Franken" Stein adventure begins... - 02/27/1309:43 PM

I wonder if one of the reasons people put a mirror on the front of uprights is so that the piano player could see what was going on at the party/dance/box social behind him/her.

From e-how:Piano mirror" also refers to a mirror placed on a piano so that the performer can see what is behind him, similar to a rear-view mirror in a car. Keyboardists cannot easily play and see what is behind them at the same time, so a mirror allows them to see another angle. This is significant during performances in churches or concert halls. Church organists often use mirrors when they play to view the clergy. Similarly, during a concert performance, a keyboardist needs to see the conductor.

Re: Our "Franken" Stein adventure begins... - 02/28/1304:34 PM

Re: Our "Franken" Stein adventure begins... - 02/28/1306:29 PM

Yeah, I'm working on that I think I'm afraid to record it because it will never live up to how it makes me feel in person. And I feel a little silly buying decent mics etc given how horrendous my playing is

I don't know how exceptional it actually is, or how my tuning chops are shaping up, but I am completely smitten by its sound. The bass from C1 up is astounding to me, aside from some tubiness on B1 & Bb1 and a few other unresolved weirdnesses. The sustain and richness of even pretty simple chords just blows me away. Sometimes I just press the damper pedal, play all the firsts and fifths up the whole keyboard and sit there and tingle I am a terrible player, and yet I just want to keep playing because the piano just sounds so good It probably helps to have a very uneducated "palate"

As I said elsewhere, we've owned a keyboard for years (semi-weighted m-audio 88 key through garageband) and used it maybe 10 times. A month and a half in, and my wife is still playing daily, I probably play 3-6 times a week (despite working 60hr weeks currently), and the boys love the noises they can make come out of it Between that and the fun I've had working on it, this is by far the best $500 I've spent in a long time